Visiting the Ka’u Coffee Mill – Coffee Culture and a Beautiful Farm

While most of the Kona coffee experiences you’ll find on the Big Island are on the Kona Coast, the Ka’u Coffee Mill is a great stop on the South Shore. Between Punalu’u Black Sand Beach and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is this beautiful coffee farm and tasting room. If you want to have a nice break in you Big Island scenic drive from Kailua-Kona to Hilo, this is a wonderful stop to make. See what you can do at the Ka’u Coffee Mill, some other farm stops you can make and get tips for enjoying Kona coffee culture on the Big Island of Hawaii.

If you haven’t done the drive on the Mamalahoa Highway to Hilo, then you might recognize the name Ka’u Coffee Mill from your time in Kailua-Kona. In addition to the farm and roasting facility, they also have a cafe in Kailua across from the pier. You can enjoy their coffee there AND at the source! If you have any questions about Kona Coffee Culture or need some additional recommendations for cafes and farms to visit, please leave a comment or send us a note. We’re always happy to share more and support these awesome local farmers!

Why Visit the Ka’u Coffee Mill

Of all the Kona Coffee farms and shops I’ve been to, Ka’u Coffee Mill has my favorite coffee flavor profiles. They have a great harvesting and roasting operation and I think they produce great beans. When you visit the Ka’u Coffee Mill cafe and shop, you’ll be able to see their sorting and roasting areas, and sample a few different types of Kona Coffee. The cafe at Ka’u Coffee Mill makes great beverages too, by the way. Using their own beans, they offer fresh brewed coffee, pour overs, espresso and more. There are coffee trees outside, a roaster on the other side of the wall, and a coffee bar right there. You can’t get much closer to the source than this!

Tips for a Great Coffee Tasting Trip

Something great about visiting Ka’u Coffee Mill that you don’t get with every Kona Coffee farm tour is that here you can actually check out the orchard up close and see the coffee cherries in their beautiful, bright red state. I love photographing coffee trees because they’re so unique, and the coffee cherry has become such a big part of agriculture on the Big Island. I think it’s a special place to visit and see the growing process up close.

Need to Know for the Ka’u Coffee Mill

Like with any other coffee farm or winery, you need to keep in mind that when you’re tasting the product, it’s an agricultural product, not a factory recipe. This means that each tasting experience will be different, and not just from farm to farm, but from batch to batch. When talking about the Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation I mentioned that you need to keep an open mind when you’re doing Kona Coffee tastings. That’s true too when you come to the Ka’u Coffee Mill.

I think the flavor profiles of the Ka’u Coffee Mill are much more in line with what regular coffee drinkers are used to. The beans still have that definitive Kona Coffee flavor and smell, but the way the Ka’u Coffee Mill processes its beans and roasts them produces a more mainstream flavor profile than many other small batch Kona Coffee roasters on the Big Island.

Parking for Ka’u Coffee Mill Farm

As you approach the Ka’u Coffee Mill tasting room and processing facility, you’ll see a beautiful coffee cherry orchard running alongside the road. You are welcome to safely pull off to the side to check it out, but there is a fence to keep people from tromping through the coffee orchard right here. When you arrive at the Ka’u Coffee Mill, you will have a chance directly next to the large parking area to walk among the coffee trees and get photos. I really like this particular coffee farm because it’s so sunny here, so getting pictures is easy.